JUDAS PRIEST‘s Richie Faulkner has implored Joe Bonamassa to “stop acting like a spoilt tit” after the blues/rock guitar titan complained about an online article based on one of his tweets.

The online exchange started when Bonamassa shared a brief video of him playing some shredding metal licks and riffs on an electric Steinberg six-string. This led to an Ultimate Guitar article headlined “Watch Joe Bonamassa Play Shred Metal on Unexpected Guitar,” which received several comments from people criticizing Joe‘s performance. In response, Bonamassa posted a link to the story and included the following message: “What’s going on fellas? Slow news day? I did this for fun and had fun doing it… now it’s on your site to be rated by some bullshit number system. Next time.. promote an unknown player that could use the exposure.”

A few hours after Joe‘s tweet made the rounds, Faulkner took to the social media platform to offer his two cents. “Calm down joe and stop acting like a spoilt tit,” he wrote. “Everyone judges, good and bad and at the core of all this, it’s just people giving their opinions on one of the greatest players on the planet today. Maybe the site also had fun doing what they do the same way you did. Lighten up”

Richie added: “You’re right, think of all the guitar players that work for years and can only dream of ANY kind of exposure. You ‘do something for fun’ and it’s seen thousands of times with a vast majority of positive comments and you slag it off. You’re an inspiration. What’s the issue?”

It wasn’t long before Bonamassa responded to Richie‘s comments, tweeting: “You know Richie it is very simple… If your job is social media at a media co. your performance is judged by two things.. Views and Engagements. It is really easy to accomplish both with a wind up post (click bait) and very hard with an unknown subject or person. Safe travels.”

In subsequent tweets, Joe denied that he was offended by people criticizing his performance. “I am long past caring about the comments about my playing from people on the internet,” he wrote. “It’s not gonna change anything about how I play nor my approach. I do care when a media outlet attempts to start a pile on at my expense. That I do not appreciate at all.”

After one fan accused Ultimate Guitar of “pure laziness” for failing to “come up with some original content” instead of “swiping” Joe‘s video “to generate clicks,” Bonamassa wrote: “It’s not laziness… Thats just how it’s done in the modern digital media business.. It’s about clicks, comments good and bad and engagements. So, as long as they appear neutral they win with advertisers. But the protagonist is hung out to dry and they don’t care.”

Another fan agreed with Richie, saying that he didn’t believe Ultimate Guitar shared Joe‘s video with the intent of generating a negative response and making Bonamassa look bad. Joe then replied: “Positive, negative who cares as long as you click through and see the advertising on the site. Being a principal player in a massive pile on a few years ago… I frankly don’t trust their motives nor their intent. Just my oppinion.”

Calm down joe and stop acting like a spoilt tit. Everyone judges, good and bad and at the core of all this, it’s just people giving their opinions on one of the greatest players on the planet today. Maybe the site also had fun doing what they do the same way you did. Lighten up

You’re right, think of all the guitar players that work for years and can only dream of ANY kind of exposure. You ‘do something for fun’ and it’s seen thousands of times with a vast majority of positive comments and you slag it off. You’re an inspiration. What’s the issue?

You know Richie it is very simple… If your job is social media at a media co. your performance is judged by two things.. Views and Engagements. It is really easy to accomplish both with a wind up post (click bait) and very hard with an unknown subject or person. Safe travels ? https://t.co/dModhqkg58

I am long past caring about the comments about my playing from people on the internet. It’s not gonna change anything about how I play nor my approach. I do care when a media outlet attempts to start a pile on at my expense. That I do not appreciate at all. https://t.co/r6Xu4FOZAa

It’s not laziness… Thats just how it’s done in the modern digital media business.. It’s about clicks, comments good and bad and engagements. So, as long as they appear neutral they win with advertisers. But the protagonist is hung out to dry and they don’t care. https://t.co/NG71dIehe8

Positive, negative who cares as long as you click through and see the advertising on the site. Being a principal player in a massive pile on a few years ago… I frankly don’t trust their motives nor their intent. Just my oppinion. https://t.co/SXKZTMus8B